Following up 2014’s long-awaited Keaton Batman, NECA recently brought out a handful of excellent surprise releases, chief among them (for me) is the Christopher Reeve Superman. Debuting in their ¼ scale line, Superman has been shrunk to a more manageable size and joins Adam West’s Batman and Heath Ledger’s Joker as fully playable action figures.
Well, fully playable, that is, if you manage to get a good one. The harsh truth is that these figures have been suffering from some of the worst quality control to come out of NECA in quite some time. It seems like every other post of excitement over acquiring one or more of these figures has turned to a tale of woe as broken limbs abound.
If you haven’t managed to track down these figures yet and are scared of the breakage, the best thing you can do is to liberally use a hairdryer. DO NOT FREEZE these figures. Boiling water will be fine, but a hairdryer is probably ideal, you’re going to want to soften the plastic around the joints and very gently work them free. I’ve never been so nervous working with a figure, but I ended up with a great figure once elbows and knees are free, so I hope you all end up with the same enjoyment.
And yes, once freed, this is a fantastic representation of the Christopher Reeve-era Superman. The head sculpt issues that plagued the ¼ scale figure seem to have been fixed on the smaller release because there’s no pinched face here at all. This is an extremely accurate portrayal of Christopher Reeve, down to the steely determination in his eyes. I’d love to see this same figure repacked with an alternate smiling head somewhere down the road — maybe with improved quality control.
Superman 1 and 2 joined the Star Wars trilogy and most of the Bond movies in heavy rotation on ABC’s “Sunday Night at the Movies” programming back in the ’80s, which is the only way a VCR-less kid could watch those movies. These movies would lead to a lot of tired Monday mornings as they were the only thing that would allow me to skirt my 9 PM bedtime and stay up until 11 or later. And I was a kid that needed a lot of sleep, but it was worth it. We’re currently being bombarded with movies based on comic books, including a brand new spate of Superman movies, but Christopher Reeve was the one who originally made us believe a man could fly, and in my opinion there will never be a better portrayal of the character.
Certain actors are born to play certain roles, and everything gelled in 1978 for a standout, defining performance. While the Internet has provided many chances to rip certain elements of those first two movies to shreds (installments 3 and 4 have more than their share of problems), and I do agree with some criticisms, in the end I don’t care what people have to say about them, superkisses and time-rewinding notwithstanding.
Superman gets a great range of motion out of the NECA articulation setup. With the number of problems these joints have been having, I can’t imagine the nightmare that would have been caused if there had been double-joints. Superman’s red trunks feature NECA’s rubbery crotch setup they’ve been using on their figures, allowing a naturalistic appearance while retaining ball-jointed hips. His upper body is a rubbery overlay on a muscled sculpt. Somebody with extras might want to slice the top away to see what’s lurking under there.
His head gets a nice range of motion in all directions allowing for a lot of expression. While his head doesn’t go quite as far as one might need for flying poses, it’s got enough so he’s not looking straight down at the ground while flying.
His cape is fabric so there’s no stiff plastic getting in the way of his dynamic posing.
He comes with two pairs of hands: fists and open palms. I was a bit paranoid when I first swapped out the hands for fear of pegs snapping, but once you do it a couple of times you stop worrying. The pegs are cast in blue and painted flesh tone, so you will definitely have some unavoidable rubbing that will end up with fully blue hinges. If that’s the type of thing that bugs you, then you will definitely be bugged and bugged good by this. NECA clearly made some odd decisions in rushing these through the process to have them out at a certain time. Even with the fragility and the rubbing, I can’t be too mad because it’s a toy I’ve wanted since I was a kid. I just need Terence Stamp’s Zod now.
These are currently showing up at Toys R Us. If you see it, grab it; don’t be afraid, just be careful and don’t force anything. With some heat, some patience and some gentleness, you should be able to free up those pesky limbs and have a great Superman to go up against your Predators, Aliens, and Terminators.